| Show by y richard Ric liard le ile gallienne Galli erme aa d bein being the authentic Nar narrative of a 0 14 treasure discovered in the ba bahama hama H islands in the year 1903 NOW first given to the public ha copyright by doubleday page Ss company YOU YOUNG synopsis the man who tells this story call him the hero for or short Is visiting his friend john saunders british official in nassau bahama islands charles webster a local merchant completes the trio ot of friends saunders produces a written document purporting to bo be the deathbed death bed statement ot of henry P tobias a successful pirate made by him in 1859 1959 it gives two spots where two millions and a halt half ot of treasure were burled by him and his companions the conversation ot of the three friends la Is overheard by a pock marked stranger the document disappears saunders dors however has a copy the hero determined to seek the burled treasure charters a schooner the pock marked man Is taken on as a passenger pa a on the voyage somebody empties the gasoline tank the hero and the passenger clash the passenger leaving a manifesto bearing the signature henry P tobias jr the hero lands on dead mens shoes there Is a fight which Is followed by several funerals the hero finds a cave containing the skeletons of two pirates and a massive chest empty save for a few pieces of eight scattered on the bottom the hero returns to nassau and by good luck learns the location of 0 short shrift island webster buys the yawl flamingo and he and the hero sail for short shrift island As the flamingo leaves the harf a young fellow jack harkaway jumps aboard and Is allowed to remain CHAPTER ill continued 7 fire away answered the youth blowing a cloud of cigarette smoke in a delicate spiral up into the morning sky but ive really told you all I 1 have to tell wo no you told us its how you came to know of our trip what we were supposed to be after and when we were starting true hushed flushed the lad momentarily menta rily losing his composure thea partly regaining it Is it necessary to answer that question absolutely answered charlie beginning to look really serious because if you dont mind well id just as soon not for that hat very reason I 1 want to know we are out on a more serious business busine than perhaps you realize and your answer may mean more to us im sure it cannot be of such imbor than you think tance to you really its hardly fair for me ma to tell I 1 should have to give away a friend im sorry sarry but I 1 shall have to insist sa st replied charlie looking very grim all right then answered the youth looking him straight in the eyes put me ashore no I 1 wont do that now either declared charlie sternly setting ills his jaw ill put you in irons rather find and keep you on bread and water till you answer rny my quest questions lons 11 you will eh retorted the youth flashing fire from his fine eyes and as he spoke quick as thought he ei J ay you young fool I 1 exclaimed charlie leaped up on to the gunwale and without hesitation dived into the great glassy rollers but charlie was quick too like a flabb he grabbed one of the boys ankles kles so go that the beautiful dive was spoiled and there was the boy hanging by an imprisoned leg over the ships side a helpless ca captive his arms lu in the water and his le leg struggling to get free but he kraght as well have struggled against the grip of Il ercule in another moment charlie had hla hill h julea aboard again his eyes full of tears of boyish rage find and humiliation mil milia lation tion you 3 oln fool I 1 charlie the water round here H N talk with warl i ro have gune fifty yards without one of them getting till you sharks gasped out the boy contemptuously 1 I know more about sharks than you do you seem to know a good many things I 1 dont said charlie bhoge whoso grimness had evidently relaxed a little at the lads display of mettle I 1 meanwhile my temper was beginning to rise on behalf of our young passenger 1 I tell you what hat charlie I 1 interposed if you are going to keep this up better count roe me out on this trip and set us both ashore at west end youre making a fool of yourself the lads till all right the boy shot me a warm glance of gratitude all right agreed charlie beginning to lose his bis temper too im damned if I 1 dont and ills his hand on the tiller he made as if to turn the boat about and tack for the shore share not no no cried the boy springing between us and appealingly laying one land hand on charlies shoulder the other on mine you let me spoil your trip ill compromise and skipper ill tell your friend here all there is to tell everything I 1 swear if you will nill leave it to his judgment right righta a agreed charlie at last so our passenger and I 1 thereupon withdrew tor for our conference it was soon over and I 1 help laughing aloud at ule uie simplicity of it all just as I 1 told you charlie I 1 exclaimed its innocence itself turning to the lad I 1 said dear boy there is really no need to keep such a small secret as that from the skipper here really have to let me tell him the boy nodded acquiescence all the same I 1 gave my word he sat said when I 1 told charlie the innocent secret lie he laughed as I 1 had done and his usual good humor instantly returned the stubbornly held secret had merely amounted to this our lad was acquainted with my conchologist and had paid him a visit the very afternoon I 1 did had in fact seen me leaving the house answering to the boy boys ia romantic talk of buried treasure and so forth the shell enthusiast had thought no harm to tell him of our projected trip and that was the whole rf of the mysterious matter yet the day was not to end without a little incident which slight though indeed it was was momentarily to arouse charlies suspicions of our charming young companion once more presently in the far southwest tiny points like a row of pins began very faintly to range themselves along the skyline sky line iliae they were palm trees though you could not make them out to be such or anything in particular till long after one darker point coln i seemed closer than the rest theres high cayl rang out the rich young voice of our passenger whom wed Y d halt half forgotten in our tense scanning of the horizon charlie and I 1 both turned to him together in surprise and ills his face certainly betrayed the contusion confusion of one who has let something slip involuntarily ho ho young man cried charlie ills his face darl darkening ening a again aln what do you know abolt abbat ill ii cay I 1 thought this was your first trip so it Is answered the boy 1 w on the sea what do you mean on tho the sea 1 I mean that ive done it many a time on the chart I 1 know every bluff and root roof mul and shoal and city around andros from morgans elul bluff T to cut you do eh on oil the chart why ive studied charts since I 1 was a kid hid an and av gone u every kind ot of voyage you can think 0 of f playing at buccaneering bucca or dball whaling 11 9 or discovering the north pole every kid dues does that they do eh said charlie evidently quite unimpressed 1 I never did because youve about as much imagination as a turnip in that hend of yours I 1 broke in in defense of my young apollo maybe if youre so smart continued charlie paying no attention to rue me you can navigate us through the north bight maybe answered our youngster pertly with an odd little smile ne ile had evidently recovered his nerve find and seemed to take pleasure in piquing charlies suspicions I 1 CHAPTER IV in which we ve enter the wilderness andros as no other of the islands Is surrounded by a ring of reefs it retching all around its coasts W we e were inside the breakwater of the roofs reefs and tile the roiling railing swell of ocean gave apy at once to a millpond ml lipond calmness we were at the entrance of 0 north bight one of the lie three bights which dotted with numerous lo 10 vly v ly ing cays breaks up andros island lu in the middle and allows s a passage through a maze like archipelago dir direct CC t to the northwest end of cuba here on the northwest aholo la is a small und and very lonely settlement one of the two or three settlements on the else de sorted island Beh bearings rings point here wo we dropped anchor a and nd charlie charile who had some business ashore proposed our landing with him but here her again our passenger aroused his su suspicions spiel ons though heaven knows why by preferring to remain aboard please let me off lie he requested in ills his most toplofty top lofty english accent you can see for yourself that theres nothing of In interest tereA rio nothing thing but a beastly lot of cabins and dirty coral rock that will cut your boots to pieces id much rather smoke and wait for you in peace and taking out his case and lighting a cigarette he waved it gaily to us as we rowed off ile he had certainly been right about Beh bearings Behrl rings point charlie charile was absurdly certain that lie he had known it before find and had some reason for not landing for a more forlorn and poverty stricken foothold of humanity could hardly be conceived a poor little cluster of negro cabins cabin indeed scramming scrambling up from the beach and with no streets but craggy pathways in and out among the gray clinter clinker like coral but it was touching to find even here that though the whole worldly goods of the community would scarcely have fetched ten dollars the souls of men were still held worth caring fo for i for for presently we came upon a pr pretty etty little church with mth a schoolhouse near by while i lille from the roof of an adjacent building we nye were hailed by a pleasant faced white man busy with some shingling it was wag the good priest of the little place father Ser serapion aplon disguised in overalls and the honest grime of his labor like a true benedictine praying with his strong and skillful hands father Scra serapion plan anil and charlie were old friends and charlie took occasion to confide in him with regard to tobias bias and to his huge delight discovered that flint a man answering very closely to his description had dropped in there with a large sponger two days before ue he had only stopped lang enough to buy rum at the little store near the landing and had bad been oft off again through the bight sailing west father Ser serapion aplon who knew charlie websters shooting ground promised to send a swift messenger should anything further of interest to us come to his 1113 knowledge within the next week or so then we sailed away from bearings Behrl Beh rings point due west through the north bight morning found us sailing through a maze of low iwa lying desert islands of a bewildering sameness of shape and size with practically nothing to distinguish one from another we had hoped tv to reach our camp out on the other side of the island that evening but that dodging the shoals and sticking in the mud had considerably delayed us besides though charlie and the captain both hated to admit it we ve had lost our way so night began to fall and as there here is no sailing in such waters at night we once more cast anchor under a gloomy black shape of land exceedingly cee lonesome and forgotten looking which we agreed to call little littie wood cay morning soon all were asleep except sailor and me I 1 lay awake tor for a long time watching the square yard of stars that shone down through the hatch in our cabin ceiling like a little window looking into eternity while the waters lapped and lapped outside and the night talked strangely to itself next most morning charlie and the captain were forced lurcee to own on up that the island discovered to the day was not little wood cay no humiliation goes deeper with a sailing wan man than having to ask his way besides who was there to ask in that solitude doubtless a cormorant flying overhead knew it but no one thought to ask him however we were in luck for after sailing ailing about a bit we came upon two lonely negroes standing up in their boots boats and thrusting long poles into the water they were sponging most melancholy of occupations and th they cy looked forlorn enough in the still iian but they had a smile for our plight it was evidently a good joke to lave have mistaken mists mist ken sapodilla cay for little wood cuy of course we should have gone bo and so we presently went not without rewarding them tor for their information inton nation with two generous drinks of old jamaica rum i one due of our reasons tor for seeking little littie wood cay which it proved had been close all the time was that it is one of the few cays whore where one can get fresh water good water sater here says the chart we wanted to refill some of our jars end so we landed there glad to stretch our legs while uld old tom cooked our breakfast on the beach under a sapo sapodilla illia tree now that we knew whitie we were it was clear but by no means careless suiting to our camp we were making for what Is known as tile the wide opening a sort of estuary into whick a listless stream or two crawl through mangrove bushes besires from the alie interior 6 swamps w a amps here a short distance from the bank on some slightly ascending rocky ground under the cpr spreading bading shade of something like a stretch of at woodland charlie several years ago aco had built a rough log shanty for his camp one of two or three camps ho he had thus scattered for himself up and down tile the out islands where nearly all the land Is no mans and so every mans land the particular camp at which we v e now arrived he had not vis VIA cited for a long time here tom brought brou glit us our dinner and the dark began to settle down upon us thrillingly lonely and full oje of strange desolate cries of night creatures from the mangrove swamps that surrounded our little oasis for miles sailor lay at our feet dreaming of tomorrows duck his masters thoughts were evidently in the same direction how are you with a gun he asked turning to the boy oh I 1 wont brag I 1 had better wait waft till tomorrow cut but of course you will have to lend me a gun 1 I have a beauty for you just your weight replied charlie his face beaming as it did only at the thought IN they were sponging of his guns which he kept polished like jewels and guarded as jealously as a violinist his violin or an arab his harem dawn was just breaking as I 1 felt charlies great paw on my shoulder next morning ile he was very serious for a moment as I 1 sat up still halt half asleep I 1 thought he had news of tobias but it was only duck I 1 was scarcely dressed when tora tom arrived with breakfast and in a few minutes we had shouldered our guns and were crossing the half mile of ct peaty waste that divided us from tw tine marl takes lakes ahead of us the crew were carrying the skiffs on their shoulders and very soon we were each seated in regulation fashion on a canvas chair in front of our respective skiffs with our guns jfoss our knees and a negro behind us to do the poling charlie went ahead with sailor standing in the bow quivering with excitement cit ett ement the necessity of absolute silence of course had been impressed upon us all by the most severe of all sportsmen tom who was poling me and I 1 understood that our job and also that hat of my companion was to steal behind one mangrove copse after another till we had got on the other side of a quacking flock of teal which might then be expected to take flight in charlies direction and rush by him in it a terrified whirlwind this not very easy feat of stalking we were able to accomplish thereby winning charlies immense approval and putting him in a splendid temper tor for the rest of the day for as the wild cloud swept over him he was able to bring down no less than seven like a true sportsman in telling the story afterward wil rd in john saunders snuggery he aver averred reI that the number was waa ninel alnet |
